The Champion

March 2006 , Page 10

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Of Bugs, The President, And The NSA: National Security Agency Intercepts Within The United States

By Douglas C. McNabb, Matthew R. McNabb

On April 20, 2004, in one of his many public appearances to bolster support for expanding surveillance authorities under the USA PATRIOT Act President Bush asserted with confidence a position which, most reasonable people at the time believed to be true, saying that any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires — a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so.1

Little did Americans know that at the time of the President’s statement, the National Security Agency (NSA), operating under express command of Presidential order,2 had for the previous several years intercepted telephone and email communications of citizens and non-citizens alike between the United States and abroad. The program continues.

Across bellows for congressional investigations,3 the protest resignation by a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge,4 d

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